Our team has completed the first phase of Best Practice collection and pilot implementation.We aimed at understanding exactly what processes and methods enabled innovation to be generated across organizational boundaries.

We found over 100 new best practices to build upon our existing foundation of several hundred practices in alliances, supply management, and outsourcing.

But before announcing the results, we wanted to test the practices in a number of industries and a variety of situations to be sure the practices worked. We are delighted with the results, and sure our clients will be too.

Click on each Finding to scroll down to learn more details

•Finding #1: In a Fast Moving, Rapidly Changing World, Innovation is the Most Sustainable Source of Competitive Advantage.

• Finding #9: While nearly every company believes innovation is a key priority, only a handful of companies have anyone truly responsible for innovation outside the R&D or Engineering groups.

• Finding #10: Outside of Patents, very few companies measure the amount of innovation that is created.

• Finding #11:Few companies see their supply chain as a source of innovation, instead treating it as a source of cost.

• Finding #12:Innovation is usually killed when a large company acquires a small dynamic company.

Conclusion:

After studying scores of companies and conducting interviews with hundreds of executives over the last few years, there is both a sadness and excitement about the matter of innovation.

The sadness lies in the failed initiative to preserve, protect, and defend the creative spirit of so many people and the companies that fostered their innovation. There is no way to measure the loss. The synergy of spirit to co-create is in-bred into the human psyche, it is among our deepest and most soulful yearnings. To kill this spirit by poor practices, neglect, and disrespect is akin to stifling the energy of youth.

But there is a note of optimism these findings. There are Best Practices and they work. Best Practices can and do create Engines of Innovation. The task ahead is not to belabor the failures of the past, but to build on the solid foundation of successful practices, which, in turn, will generate even more and better new practices. The risk is small and the reward is great.

Read on, and browse this site to find new ways to make innovation flourish and regenerate.